


Shadowsong

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: General, Multi-Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2004-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-06 08:51:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4215386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em> "But the hearts of men are easily corrupted..." </em> - Why does Sauron's corruption work so well with men and how much of the man is left after ages in the shadow? An attempt to look into the mind of the Lord of the Nazgûl. - A vignette.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Shadowsong

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

_Ash nazg thrakatulûk..._

Nothing is eternal but the darkness.

The sun never rises in the Valley of the Dead and the silent streams flow with poison, but there was a time when flowers blossomed in the glades and the moonlight painted the walls of the tower with molten silver, there was a time of light in the darkest of places, or so I am told because I do not remember. I do not wish to remember.

But when I was young I believe I loved the sunrise and I think I remember my father’s voice, telling me of a ship of fire that sails the oceans of the sky, floating amidst the clouds upon the currents of the wind. I do not even remember my father’s face, nothing except for his voice and the stories he told me. Everything else is hidden in shadow, but I believe I loved the sunrise then.

_Annatar, Annatar, for your gifts I traded memory, for your power I traded dawn and you gave me a steed of night._

The moonlit tower did not last long, no longer than the blink of an eye measured in the eternities I have walked this earth. In the shadows one loses track of time and it does not matter, just as time itself no longer matters to me, because I have defeated the undefeatable, conquered the all-powerful. Mortality is but the memory of the bitter taste of blood in my mouth, the fading remnant of battles long past, past and forgotten. But I saw them die, saw them die day and night, hundreds of them, thousands, winking out of existence like candles in a gust of wind. And their empty eyes filled me with a strange joy because I had no wish to see that which they beheld in death, be it darkness eternal or peace unending. I do not desire peace, for its taste is stale and rotten and its crown is nothing but dust and illusion.

I watched them stumble, saw the moonlight fall and laughed, for in the darkness I survived and men’s lives are now but heartbeats to me, fading in the distance without even an echo in the silence of time. I would have my thoughts resound through eternity and if black horror trembles in their wake, so be it. I shall be content because I shall not be forgotten.

I have seen them struggle against time, fools believing to be strong enough to defeat the mountains and turn the tide. I have seen his face as he accepted my challenge and I have seen his face as he died. There is no glory in death and no salvation, nothing but oblivion. To forget and be forgotten. But I shall not forget, neither shall I be forgotten.

Nothing is eternal but the darkness. Of darkness the world was born and to darkness it shall return, in cycles without end as the sun is born of night and swallowed by shadow at the death of the day. Nothing is eternal but the darkness.

_Annatar, Annatar, for your gifts I traded time, for your power I traded mortality and you gave me a crown of swords._

“Slaves to his will,” so they say in the streets, fear trembling in their voices. I have heard them, time and time again and laughed inside with a strange mirth long drained of any real joy. I do not remember what happiness feels like, maybe I have never known. But I have tasted power undreamed of and I do not desire happiness nor all the joys of the earth, for I have tasted eternity and all else pales next to the ecstasy of the world burning like the sun in the palm of my hand.

“Slaves to his will,” they say, “and victims to their greed.” But I am no victim now. Not anymore. I have tasted power undreamed of and you would call me victim? I have won battles and thrones and you would still call me victim? My thoughts will echo through time when your cries have long faded to nothing but the whisper of a memory in the silence, and I shall not be forgotten.

We ride forth, cloaked in shadow and winged with fear. It will be the last war, so they say, the last great war and the defeat of light will be terrible and complete. There will be no more sunrises then. We ride forth and behind us the mountains are moving, the earth is shaking for the storm has come. Behind us the land is drowned in night and the rivers turn crimson with sorrow.

Yet I live and with the certainty of victory I watch the sun rise, blood-stained above their mortal plains, singing a prophecy of doom that echoes in the drums of the black tide. Nothing is eternal but the darkness.

_Annatar, Annatar, for your gifts I traded oblivion, for your power I traded peace and you gave me a Ring of fire._

Yet I would not have it any other way. Not even now as I watch the sun rise, indifferent.

_... agh burzum-ishi krimpatul._


	2. Authors Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"But the hearts of men are easily corrupted..."_ \- Why does Sauron's corruption work so well with men and how much of the man is left after ages in the shadow? An attempt to look into the mind of the Lord of the Nazgûl. - A vignette.

_Ash nazg durbatulûk,_  
ash nazg gimbatul,  
ash nazg thrakatulûk  
agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. 

_(Black Speech)_

One Ring to rule them all,  
one Ring to find them,  
one Ring to bring them all  
and in the darkness bind them.

 

_Annatar_ – ‘Lord of Gifts’, a name Sauron took in the Second Age when he appeared in a fair form among the Eldar. I decided to use this name here since I think he probably wouldn’t have wanted his servants to call him ‘Sauron’ (‘the Abhorred’).

_moonlit tower_ – Minas Ithil, the Tower of the (Rising) Moon, later Minas Morgul

_no longer than the blink of an eye measured in the eternities I have walked this earth_ – the siege of Minas Ithil actually lasted 2 years before the city fell in 2002 TA

_as he accepted my challenge..._ – King Eärnur of Gondor rode to Minas Morgul in 2050 TA, accepting the Witch-king’s challenge first issued in 2043 when Eärnur received the crown. He was never seen again and the rule of the Stewards began in Minas Tirith.


End file.
